A system is known for reproducing items of program information from a recording medium having a plurality of items of program information recorded thereon, in which desired items of program information are previously selected and information representing the selected items is stored in a memory. The items of program information recorded o the recording medium are then successively reproduced according to the information stored in the memory.
As a system for selecting desired items of program information, there is known, for example, a system in which an item number for a program information is assigned by means of a numerical key. Further, a system is known in which the respective head portions (i.e., initial recorded portions) of all the items of recorded program information are successively reproduced, each for a fixed time and desired items of program information are assigned by operating specific actuators during a reproducing operation (Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 62-8388).
However, the system for selecting desired items of program information by means of numerical keys is disadvantageous since the selection of items of program information is performed while observing a list of titles of all of the items of program information recorded on the recording medium, and therefore it is difficult to select desired program information while confirming the contents thereof. Further, in the system of successively reproducing the respective head portions of the items of program information, each for a fixed time (e.g., 10 seconds) so as to select desired items of program information, a problem exists in that it is sometimes impossible to confirm the contents of the program information because the fixed time is so limited. More particularly, this problem occurs in cases where a long period of time exists between a start position of the program information and a position where data is actually recorded. It is of course possible to confirm the contents if the time for reproduction is increased; however, this would increase the time it takes for successively reproducing the head portions of all the items of program information, and therefore the function of selecting desired ones of the plurality of recorded items of program information would be troublesome (i.e., it would take too long).